Food in exchange for waste, so this South African start-up fights poverty and… trash

    Food in exchange for waste, so this South African start-up fights poverty and… trash

    South African start-up LOCK offers the possibility to collect and exchange recyclable waste with a digital currency. 

    Have you ever imagined that cardboard boxes, cans and bottles can save entire communities from starvation? This is what happens thanks to the South African start-up LOCK (Love Our City Klean), which offers hundreds of places the possibility to collect and exchange recyclable waste with a digital currency with which to buy food and basic necessities.





    “Launderers” can use this currency in a “Swap Shop” to purchase food and essential products. For many people this project represents a real lifeline, in a country where, due to the pandemic, 3 million citizens have lost their jobs and 1 in 5 people suffer from hunger. 

    The project provides, to those who want to be part of it, a card with a unique barcode, which is used to load their "recycling points". 

    I didn't know about recycling, but this project taught us to fish so we can feed ourselves

    Ngalula, 42, said as she sorted her carton load at a makeshift warehouse in Lorentzville, a suburb in the South African inland city. 

    I don't know what I would have done otherwise

    continued the woman, who was a domestic worker until she lost her job due to the blockade of the health emergency. 

    Charities, businesses and the government have all launched feeding programs, soup kitchens, community gardens and food stamp distributions to help feed the millions of people affected by unemployment. 

    But the start-up wanted to find a sustainable solution that, on the one hand, would allow people to receive food and, on the other, improve the environment by cleaning up the city.

    LOCK sells the collected materials to larger depots or private repurchase centers, and that money is used to fund awareness campaigns targeting the metropolis. 

    People who have undergone a rigorous assessment to assess their level of need are placed on the "register of the destitute" of the Department of Social Development of the city.



    Read also: 

    • Plastic bottles in exchange for bonuses: where to find compactors to earn with recycling
    • Incentive collection: in Malaysia gold in exchange for plastic to be recycled
    • Coupons in exchange for waste: incentive collection arrives in schools
    • Intelligent separate collection: in Lucca those who reduce waste save on taxes
     
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